Senate accuses EPA of evasiveness on streams

{mosads}”The EPA has perpetually taken steps to expand its own jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act, the now withdrawn guidance document and new rule are symptoms of an agency unceasingly trying to broaden its reach and frustrate commerce,” said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the ranking member on the committee, in a statement. “We’re demanding a whole lot more transparency and to unequivocally withdraw the controversial draft guidance.”

In September, the EPA released a report from its independent science advisory board making the case for regulating smaller estuaries and brooks.

That report replaced a disputed 2011 draft guidance, but the senators allege that it was never publicly withdrawn.

“To our knowledge, EPA has not provided a notice or statement for public and agency dissemination which confirms the draft guidance’s termination,” they write in the letter.

The proposal is no longer under review at the White House’s regulation office, however, where it had been for more than a year.

The lawmakers want the EPA to “immediately and publicly” tell staffers not to rely on it for regulatory actions by Oct. 9.

That might be difficult for the EPA, though, which is maintaining a bare-bones staff during the federal government shutdown. About 94 percent of the agency’s staffers have been furloughed because of the shutdown.

An EPA spokeswoman said that the agency would review the letter.

In addition to Vitter, Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) signed the letter.